-The next match at Brussels as well as the next time Belgium would win would be a World Cup Qualifier on November 15, 1997 (2-1 Belgium win).

Belgium’s Vander Elst and Republic of Ireland ‘s Houghton were the only players still remaining from that match.

-Ireland were awarded their penalty kick after Stapelton was fouled by Pfaff in the box.

Later Stapelton admitted that the penalty should not have been awarded.

-This was the first official match of Republic of Ireland with Englishman Jacky Charlton as amnager.

-Belgium had just finished fourth in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and this was their first match since the World Cup.

-Republic of Ireland qualified from this European Championship Qualifying Group and qualified for the finals of a major tournament for the first time in its history.

-Belgium’s Eric Gerets was unavaialble for this match.

-Every Irish player was based outside of Ireland. All were british based except Brady who played in Italy for Ascoli.

Belgium’s foreign based players were Pfaff, Desmet, Vandenbergh and Claesen.

Photo from: Mondial, February 1987

-Belgium’s Nico Claesen played in the English League for Tottenham Hotspur. He was teammates with Ireland’s Hughton and Galvin.

-Arsenal defender David O’Leary had been axed from the Ireland squad by Charlton because of his refusal to participate in the Iceland tournament at the end of 1986 season due to a previously scheduled family holiday. He would apologizeand be back in the squad by fall of 1988.

-Franck Vercauteren managed Belgium from May 2009 to end of September 2009.

-Both Ireland’s Brady and Belgium’s Scifo represented Italian Serie A club Internazionale FC Milano in their career. Scifo joined Inter the following season.

-Belgian defender Leo Clijsters (born November 9, 1956) passed away on January 4, 2009 at age 52, due to lung cancer. He was the father of Tennis players Kim and Elke.

-Ireland under Jacky Charlton had accepted the grand-parent rule as a criteria for selection eligibility. As a result Englishman John Aldridge and Scottish Ray Houghton were eligible for selection for Ireland.

John Aldridge, in a conversation with club teammate at Oxford David Langan, had mentioned that his grandmother was from Athlone and had moved to England.

Aldridge in return told Charlton about Houghton, whose father was from Donegal.

-The match was played at Brussels’ Heysel Stadium, where over a year earlier, the ill-fated Champions Cup Final between Juventus and Liverpool took place.